Frigid wintry weather couldn’t halt the flurry of live music heating up stages from Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo over the weekend, from rock and metal to bass music and acoustic glory. Browse the photos.
Fiery Fusion: Squatch reveling Friday in release of its album, ‘Pilgrimage.’ (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
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Kalamazoo’s Sounds of the Zoo festival usually basks in the pleasant, late-September weather that distinguishes the Great Lakes State, showcasing scores of Michigan’s best musical artists.
On Saturday, however, Sounds of the Zoo spotlighted some of that talent — hailing from Detroit to Kalamazoo and beyond — amid the most frigid and snowiest stretch of wintry weather the region has seen in years.
The Motor City’s Jennifer Westwood & The Handsome Devils, with special guest, singer-songwriter Ted Russell Kamp, heated up Old Dog Tavern for Sounds of the Zoo’s first hosted concert of 2026, with The Incantations from Kalamazoo opening the night as an acoustic duo. (The evening also marked recent birthdays for Sound of the Zoo’s Jennifer Hudson-Prenkert and The Incantations’ Lisa Mackie.)
Despite several cancellations of Friday night shows across the region, the Old Dog affair wasn’t the only live music event to brave the elements and fire up amplifiers over the weekend.
Grand Rapids prog-fusion band Squatch celebrated release of its brand new studio album on Friday at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids, with a boost from Flood the Desert and Traverse City’s Levitator.
That same night, Orlando bass music star Avello pumped up EDM fans at The intersection’s Stache.
Kalamazoo’s Saturday lineup also boasted the return of metal’s Jeff Fest, with the fifth annual bash at Papa Pete’s featuring sets by Drink Their Blood, Kill Tomorrow and more. Bell’s Brewery Eccentric Cafe, meanwhile, hosted Minneapolis indie-rockers Bad Bad Hats (on the 10th anniversary tour behind their debut LP, “Psychic Reader”) along with opening act, Chicago’s Smut.
View all of the images below. And check out full coverage with photos of Friday’s Rockford’s Got Talent competition here: Michael Sobie, Aiden Wells, Nora Lamb snag top honors at Rockford’s Got Talent
PHOTO GALLERY: Squatch, Levitator, Flood the Desert at The Pyramid Scheme
Photos by Chelsea Whitaker
PHOTO GALLERY: Avello at The Intersection’s Stache
Photos by Eric Stoike
PHOTO GALLERY: Jennifer Westwood, Ted Russell Kamp, Incantations at Old Dog Tavern
Photos by Derek Ketchum
